Cave rituals associated to Artemis/Diana in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (7th century BC – 5th century AD)
Keywords:
Artemis, Diana, religion, cave, liminal, ritual, women, AntiquityAbstract
Artemis/Diana is a Greco-Roman divinity linked to nature, the wild, women and the liminal that does not adapt to classical civic norms. Due to this, in the mythical narratives and in the ritual practices, this goddess is associated with the nature of the cave, a topography far from the civilized, where are located entrances to underworld and human contact with the supernatural and the femenine fecundity. In this article I intend to analyze in detailthe symbolic figure of the goddess Artemis/Diana, as well as her cult linked to caves, paying special attention to female cults. This is due to the fact that, from a gender perspective, women in ancient times, whether they were divinities, faithful or priestesses in the Greco-Roman religion, have been victims of a long invisibility as an active religious subject by traditional historiography.
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